Ironic that the BBC publish this story about innumeracy, when they have done so much to perpetuate the myth that being bad at mathematics, or anything scientific, is acceptable.
Anyone who wants to be considered educated should have a solid grounding in mathematics (not just numeracy). As great teachers become rarer, so they create fewer great teachers and it gets harder to find the expertise needed to help understand the material.
If they are really interested in supporting the UK’s economy and culture, maybe John Humpries, Carol Vorderman, Jonathan Ross et al. could donate a fraction of their enormous incomes to create a prize fund for outstanding science teachers? (Let’s make the fraction sum easy…say 1/10 ?).
